Latest Motorsports News (Week 1 February 2018)

Maro Engel will play no further part in Mercedes’ DTM adventure for 2018

Maro Engel has officially shifted his focus to Formula E and GT racing. Engel had churned out decent results since returning to the Championship last year and bagged his first win at Moscow Raceway. Engel’s first stint was from 2008 to 2011. The 32-year old German joined Formula E with Venturi, but couldn’t take a part in the Paris ePrix. With a steadfast focus in the all-electric series, Engel revealed his plans of joining DTM again as he referred to it as a score to settle and he did it by winning the Moscow Championship. Engel was immensely grateful and thanked his team who made it possible. Sitting at 16th in the Formula E standings, Engel would have faced a tricky situation had he not pulled out of DTM as the former may clash with the latter twice in the next month.

Engel expressed his disappointment about the DTM-Formula E schedule clashes and said that he would have loved to continue his DTM adventures. Mercedes lost its second driver representing the DTM line-up as Robert Wickens decided to trade for IndyCar.

Lando Norris sees Alonso as his biggest obstacle to start his career with McLaren

Norris is an exciting talent and a prodigious kid who has been lured by many teams, but the 18-year old Brit has been bagged by McLaren and will be in the reserves for this season. Yet to make his debut in F1, Norris has already won European Formula 3 Championship last year and will ply his trade in Carlin in 2018. When asked about Alonso’s retirement, Norris came up with a straightforward reply and accepts that he would be able to fill in. He said that much depended on how Alonso thinks and how he wants to play out his career.

Norris also made his plans clear that if an opportunity in F1 with McLaren doesn’t come up, he will be looking elsewhere. However, his present focus is to see how the current season shapes, and will look to develop his game.

Renault fears complete technical reset

There is a sense of anxiety surrounding Cyril Abiteboul and Renault over the new F1 limits that are set to take place in 2021. The F1 is expected to make a string of changes to the technical factor of the game, and that will include keeping the 1.6-litre turbocharged hybrid concept, a higher rev limit, and removal of MGU-H. However, Cyril feels the 2021 change may signal them starting from the scratch and that would be a sucker punch for the team. With all the time taken to make the engine and the effort put up by the team, such a decision would incur financial and technical losses.